Writer. Educator. Storyteller.

On being.

This article was originally published in Project Wednesday’s weekly email on January 6th, 2016.

“It takes guts to tremble, it takes so much tremble to love.” –Andrea Gibson, Poet

Well, here we are. 2016. A new year. Fresh mind. Different perspective. And yet, it still feels like 2015. It doesn’t feel like a new year. Yesterday was summer and the day before that was February and the day before that was 2012. Isn’t it funny? Time keeps moving on and here we are — broken and beautiful — trying to convince ourselves that we’re still the humans we thought we were yesterday. But we’re not.

We’re different. Changed. Transformed on a daily basis by the things that surround us: people, ideas, the Earth spinning as it does, and ourselves. We don’t necessarily see it happening and then it happens. One day we look back and realize how far we’ve come.

Maybe 2015 held so much pain for you. Maybe you felt like you took up too much space. Maybe you thought that you weren’t enough. Maybe you felt like you were stuck in some kind of recycled nightmare or that you had too many flaws to ever be accepted by others in this world.

That’s what today is about. It’s about accepting who you are today: every victory lap, every broken bone, every bruised heart, every moment that we thought we weren’t going to be okay, every song that made us feel alive.

That’s what today is.

It’s a journey through mindfulness of being. Just being. It’s a constant reflection of who you used to be and who you want to be.

It’s an opportunity to take breaths deep into your lungs, to realize where you’re at, to center yourself. It’s an ongoing adventure of coming home to yourself.

This life is going to pass you by, day by day, week by week, until the months become years and you’re still stuck in 2011 and you realize that you’re not the you that you used to be.

But this is your moment. This is meant for you.

Let 2016 be the year that you commit to thinking a little deeper, to loving a little harder, and to growing a little closer to yourself in every moment. Allow yourself to outgrow the people and places and ideas that no longer serve the root of who you are. Allow yourself the safe space to be authentic and vulnerable and brave. You were not meant to fit so neatly into other people’s boxes.

Let 2016 be the building of a foundation with which you construct your life. Let it be the year that you forgive yourself for every mistake you made; every standard you never upheld; every expectation you never met. Buddy Wakefield once said, “Forgiveness is the release of all hope for a better past.” He’s right.

Most of all, let 2016 just be. Everything that happens will happen just as it should, good or bad. And when 2017 comes, maybe letting the light in won’t hurt so much. Maybe you won’t feel like the problem or the solution.